Too much celebrating after scoring the year's biggest story leads to 24 missing hours in the life of photojournalist Aaron Doherty. Awakening in a wheat field with no memory of the previous day, Aaron struggles to account for the gap. Sent back in time when the phenomenon recurs, the progressively disoriented Aaron is left to untangle the vast political conspiracy that's behind it all.

In the near future, The Tangle, an A.I. utilising airborne nanotech, connects the world. It is a benevolent guardian, returning law and order to society. To ensure that The Tangle never turns rogue, a government agency watches over the tech from within safe rooms, locations impermeable to the nanobots that make up The Tangle. When field agent Margot Foster is found dead in one of these rooms, the agency needs to investigate the first murder in years.